Collage Rationale

The Collage may look like anyone can do in a matter of seconds but in reality it takes time and pain staking decision making. So basically I needed to find pictures of myself or use some of the ones provided to make a larger image made out of smaller ones layered on top of each other. The main point was to master the skills in Photoshop, have an artistic look and make it unique according to my font poem "I woke up on this side. I thought it was a dream. At first we learned to walk. Then learned to scream." The real fun came after mastering the skills. First I should actually describe what the skills were, 1) Merging layers, 2) Using masks on the images,
3) Working with layers 4) Positioning of images 5) Playing with hue/saturation/opacity and blending modes. It's safe to say that the main concept deals with mastering photos and layer manipulation.

During the collage, I found many useful tips or ways around obstacles I initially encountered. To copy a picture in to the collage, you drag it into photoshop > select > select all > edit > copy into the collage. In order to view all the images being used go to window - arrange - tile. Right click a layer than go to layer properties to rename it to each according body part. Folders can be made to drag certain layers to organize it or for editing where you can select only some layers to be affected by a change either in the folder or outside of it. To change the size of the picture you can click edit - free transform and just scale it down with the mouse or type in a percentage for the height and width at the top bar while selecting the crop tool than click the chain link button and it will than affect both. Blending mode and other is in pull-down menu in layers other can be found through right clicking the layer or above the layer list. If the image is on multiply mode it will adapt all the hue/saturation changes any photo gets, so I kept the images on normal if I didn't want them to change in color.

Okay enough about my tips, now more about the fun stuff. Like I said once I got the basics down, we had a lot of space for creativity. I wanted a fire effect, more particularly, a flame. What I did was get a fire background, but still wasn't enough. I even magnetic lasso'd in a picture of myself on both sides looking outwards with a thumbs up. In the end I found color negative RGB which turned my blue saturated lame collage to a fiery masterpiece with a flame glow in my sun glasses on both sides. I than made some of the images semi-transparent to add the flame flicker effect. I also put fingers on the hands to emphasize them and a pointing directing. Having the images under mainly linear light and multiply I was able to make them all blend very neatly. The faces also make me smile because it follows the font poem "learned to scream", also gives off the feeling of a 4 headed monster with 4 arms and only 2 legs. The middle of the collage (my back) clashes with a blue inverted look. Because the back is suppose to represent the word "side" which to me represents not only a position but a powerful feeling or emotion that distinguishes itself from the rest.

If I had more time I would make more layers, more personal connection or secrets and just make it all blend better. The collage was really fun, I loved the personal connection and creativity in it while it allowed me to home in some of my skills in Photoshop.

Font Poem Rationale

I chose the particular excerpt from the song because All American Rejects is my favorite band and I felt that it had a powerful meaning behind it. Every word brings a different image in my mind. For example side could literally mean a part of your body but to me it means waking up with a different personality. First we learn to walk then learned to scream can be intrepreted in numerous ways. Regardless if you break it down it means you start small like a whimper then work your way to something bigger like a roar to get heard. I picked several different fonts with only the ‘to’ and ‘I’ as the same font, so, 18 different fonts for 22 words. I than altered them through Photoshop using the transformation tool; special effects, fonts, colors and spacing that matched the particular word appropriately.

The fonts for each word: I (Matura mt script capitals), Woke (Braggadocio), Up (Copperplate gothic bold), On (Mesquite Std), This (Rad std), Side (Brush script std), Thought (Abadi mt condensed extra bold), It (Birch std), Was (Curlz mt), A (Arial), Dream (Cracked), At (Rosewood std), First (Stencil), We (Synchro let), Learned#1 (Umbra std), To (Prestige elite std), Walk (Banco std), Then (Critter std), Learned#2 (Pompeia std), Scream (Quake std).

Some of the effects, and tweaks for each word: I (red outer-shadow) Woke (spaced, multiply, inner shadow, satin, a variety of red per each letter), Up (skewed using tool under free transform, crisp font), On (outer glow, yellow), Side (vertical text, satin, opacity 70%), Thought (free transform diagonal, 2 letters have color), It (bevel & emboss, pattern overlay), A (twist, pattern overlay), Dream (twist, each letter has a different shade of blue, lowered opacity, outer glow) At (white font with outer glow, increased size for added effect), First (wave), We (squeeze, pattern overlay), Learned#1 (Inner glow), Walk (inner glow), Then (outer glow and spacing), Learned#2 (pattern overlay), Scream (inflate, inner shadow, outer glow, inner glow, bevel emboss, color overlay, gradient overlay)

I encountered only two problems. The first was before I even started the project. The default mode in Photoshop was in bitmap instead of RGB. Hence, I couldn’t add layers for each word or even start. The second was when the person sitting next to me started the project late and asked how to make the background black. He didn’t have the background layer selected so it wasn’t working. Eventually I told him to select it, then edit > fill > background > black.

I’m most proud of the different characteristics from each word - In other words, the uniqueness. The vibrant colors, and positions of the words really bring out the inner emotion of the excerpt from the song. For example the ‘on’ is glowing like a light bulb and is actually placed on the ‘this’ and ‘scream’, ‘at’, ‘dream’ and ‘woke’ particularly stand out –acting as eye candy. It may seem simple in some parts but in reality each word had a tremendous amount of thought and creativity involved. The font poem has an array of different attributes, all with a hidden personal meaning.

Second rough draft of Font Poem

First rough draft of Font Poem

Design Rationale Contact Sheet

The first row in the contact sheet dealt with DPI. I never knew what DPI stood for but I always figured that it had something to do with picture quality. It means dots per inch, which more specifically deals with an images resolution. The first task was to find an image with 1200 DPI through Morguefile’s or Flickr’s website. This turned out to be a trial and error process because some of the photos were either copy righted, in GIF (generated image format) or was simply the wrong DPI. I found a 1200 DPI picture by simply typing 1200 DPI in the search bar of Flickr. The image was then dragged into to the desktop and put into a folder labeled contact sheet for organization and then into Photoshop where it would undergo any necessary transformation. To find the DPI/resolution of an image in Photoshop go to image tab > image size > under resolution: 1200. Also every image in the contact sheet couldn’t be taller than one inch, so for every picture I had to go to the image tab > image size > change height to one inch. So the 1200 DPI photo only needed its height changed then it could be saved and dragged into the contact sheet document to its according box. For the other pictures in the row go to image tab > image size > change resolution to the desired DPI – rinse and repeat. And of course continue the saving and dragging to the contact sheet document making sure all the heights are one inch and the original photo was still in tact in case any mess-ups occurred.

The second row of the contact sheet was formatting centered. We needed to find a colorful photo over 180 DPI which I found using a trial and error process on Flickr again. The first box I did was RGB, which is monitor color (red, green and black). I did not have to do much work because Photoshop’s default mode is in RGB, so after turning the height of the image to one inch it was ready to be put into the document. Another box was CYMK or print color, I went to image tab> mode > CYMK. However, I had to save the file as a adobe PDF instead of jpg and then was able to drag it into the document. For black and white, I had to remember to set the mode back to RGB, than I was able to go to image > adjustments > black and white. And lastly for Duotone, I had to use the original photo, set it to a height of one inch and then image tab > mode > Duotone. We were allowed to play around with some colors until we decided on two and saved it as a Photoshop PDF then dragged it into the document finishing the second row.

The third row required us to use the crop tool. The crop tool is on the left tool bar in Photoshop. We found a different picture again180 DPI or more keeping the height 1 inch. The first box had to be square. So using the crop tool and selecting the picture made a bar on top of the screen appear where you could type in the height or width of the crop for the image. Square had to be 1-inch width and 1 inch height than saved and transferred over to document. Another key tip was starting the crop in the corner instead of middle or the picture would be zoomed in. For the landscape box height had to be less then width (h < w), so I did 1 inch height and 1.5 inch width, cropping any part of the picture and saving it as a jpg as usual. Lastly for the portrait box width had to be less then the height (w
The fourth row dealt with framing or cropping. Key tips to remember for this row was remembering the width from the image size tab and then writing the width in the top bar of Photoshop and keeping the height always at one inch. That way it matches up the original picture with the new crop size. Also it is crucial to make sure your using the original before cropping a picture, so go to open recent and click the original before beginning a new box. The first box had to be a close-up, so I went to the crop tool, made a box in the middle of the picture then moved the box towards the desired spot. After that, I double clicked the spot and the picture zoomed in the area I selected. The second box was basically more of a zoom out of the first and the third box was even more of a zoom out of the second. Basically, it is simpler to start with the original (the 4th box of the row), and then use the crop tool, make your selection, tweak the width and height accordingly and keep zooming in slightly for the 2nd and 3rd boxes and then the close-up is a max zoom on the spot you were aiming for.

The fifth row was about content from abstract to representational. The hard part was finding a decent photo where you could crop to trick the human eye into not knowing what they were looking for. I also had to remember to transfer over the same width and keeping the height one inch from the image size tab to the top bar that appears after selecting the crop tool. So for the abstract box I cropped a part of an image, then double clicked the selected area until it was zoomed in or focusing on a spot of the object, making sure no one could tell what the object was. The two other boxes in between abstract and representational, I used the crop tool and slightly zoomed out by selecting a wider area then double clicking. And lastly for representational, the photo had to look more like the original object/more identifiable, so I just used the original picture to show the contrast from abstract. It was interesting the photo went from a tree looking object (abstract) to a bird (representational).

The last row or the sixth was simple but fun, it dealt with purpose and filters. I found an interesting photo of myself and then put it into Photoshop and than the fun started. I went to the filter tab and picked the artistic palette knife feature and I was able to play around with the detail or different characteristics until I was happy. The next box I went to filter > motion > average blur which fascinated me because it made it look like I was rocking back and forth. The third box I went to filter > sketch > photocopy which turned me into a black and white with almost a comic book feel to it. And the last box was journalistic which was just the original photo. The journalistic box made the entire row interesting because the viewer can now compare the pictures from the other boxes to the original to see it’s transformation through the various filters.